Such a rearview mirror may consist of a reflector layer for the reflection of light striking the mirror from a viewing direction and a display layer arranged behind the reflector layer relative to the viewing direction for the emission of light. Such a rearview mirror fulfills, in particular, a dual function. On the one hand, it serves as a rearview mirror in the conventional sense and on the other, as a display when the display layer emits light.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,121 discloses a rearview mirror for a vehicle, wherein the rearview mirror includes an LCD display and two polarizing layers that are transparent when in an unpowered state.
A mirror with a display is sold by Philips as MirrorTV. Details may be obtained, e.g., from the websites having the internet addresses www.ces2004.philips.com/downloads/press-releases/business-productivity/MirrorTV.pdf and www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/O,aid,1111OO,OO.asp
EP 0 719 675 B1 discloses an interior mirror of a motor vehicle with a display device, said display device consisting of a mirror body, a rearview mirror provided in a front opening of the mirror body for reflecting an image behind a vehicle back to a viewing point of a driver and an information-displaying mirror provided in the mirror body for reflecting the visual information displayed by a light emitting display device back to the viewing point of the driver through the information display region, said rearview mirror displaying a semipermeable reflecting film applied to the entire rear surface of a glass substrate and a black-coated film applied to the rear surface of the semipermeable reflection film, part of the black-coated film being removed for presenting the information display and in which slits are provided in the light emission display device for guiding the information displayed by the light emitting display device in the direction of the information displaying mirror.
EP 0 635 395 B1 discloses an information device in a motor vehicle that includes an electronic circuit that can be connected to the vehicle's power system and one or more sensors, an display device and optionally operating elements, where the sensor and the circuit are installed in the housing of an interior mirror of the vehicle, and where the circuit is connected by a cable guided through a hollow supporting arm of the interior mirror and connectable to the vehicle's power system, and in which the display device is integrated in the mirror glass of the interior mirror.
DE 197 41 896 C2 discloses a device for displaying images of the environment around a motor vehicle in a field of vision of a driver situated in the interior of the motor vehicle, said device including at least one image screen, on which image information registered by sensors and processed electronically is displayed, at least one camera being present that is equipped with a sensor for registering image information and information on the spatial position of objects in the area surrounding the vehicle, and a control unit is provided for electronic processing of the image information registered by the sensors, the operating characteristics of the vehicle being fed to the control unit as input magnitudes, and said control unit switches back and forth between different modes of video display as a function of the operating characteristics.
Other mirrors are known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,646,697 (incorporated by reference), U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,432 (incorporated by reference), U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,692 (incorporated by reference), U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,477 (incorporated by reference), U.S. Pat. No. 6,646,806 (incorporated by reference), US 2003/0222982 (incorporated by reference), US 2004/0032675 (incorporated by reference), US 2004/0114384 (incorporated by reference), US 2004/0032676 (incorporated by reference), US 2003/0095047 (incorporated by reference), US 2003/0043480 (incorporated by reference), US 2002/0070872 (incorporated by reference), US 2001/0055143 (incorporated by reference) and US 2001/0013825 (incorporated by reference).